Dynamic Learning Project

Product or Programme · All products and programmes
Evidence · 14 claims (14 for) · 4 studies (2 associational, 1 qualitative, 1 design), q2 · 0 of 4 report an effect size · 14 claims rest on one study

Description

A school-based instructional technology coaching programme run by Digital Promise that places full-time coaches in underserved schools to support teachers through iterative coaching cycles, modeling, co-teaching, and reflection.

Components

• Dynamic Learning Project (DLP) coaching model: The DLP is a school-based instructional technology coaching program that placed one site-based, full-time coach in each of 50 underserved schools for one year. Coaches ran "four eight-week coaching cycles" in which teachers selected, tackled, and reflected on classroom challenges, supported by classroom modeling, co-teaching, and observations. Coaches and principals received mentoring, a Summer and Winter Institute, and membership in a Professional Learning Network. In the pilot year more than 1,110 of 2,250 teachers participated. (Bakhshaei et al. (2018))
• Five cornerstones of an effective classroom technology coaching program: The report proposes that five aspects of the DLP account for its success: partnership, active learning, personalization, sustained support, and content flexibility. Partnership means a voluntary, non-evaluative, school-based collaboration among administrators, coaches, and teachers in which "teachers and coaches co-constructed lessons." Active learning structures coaching around learning by doing on each teacher's own classroom challenge; personalization fits support to teacher, school, and district context; sustained support spans weeks and months; and content flexibility lets coaches support subjects outside their own expertise by treating the teacher as the content expert. (Bakhshaei et al. (2019))

Claims

• Coaches reported significantly greater confidence in their coaching skills by year end, rising from 62 to 89 percent rating themselves high or extremely high [+W]
• DLP teachers reported significant increases in using technology for both content and pedagogy, but no significant difference from non-DLP teachers in basic technology skills [+W]
• Teachers coached for more than one cycle reported more powerful technology use and greater confidence, though a breadth-versus-depth tradeoff remains open [+W]
• Principals' confidence in leadership skills related to instructional coaching rose from 60 to 95 percent over the pilot year [+W]
• Teachers reported increasing encouragement of risk-taking while coaches were less confident teachers actually took risks [+W]
• After one year of DLP coaching, coached teachers reported more frequent and more powerful technology use than non-participating colleagues [+W]
• DLP participants reported more frequent meaningful coaching activities than other coaching programs, but fewer opportunities to observe other teachers [+M]
• Dynamic Learning Project research found teachers who worked with edtech coaches used technology more frequently and felt more confident than peers who did not [+W]
• DLP-coached teachers reported greater increases in frequency of technology use than non-DLP teachers [+W]
• Coaches and principals in the DLP grew in confidence and skills over the year [+W]
• More DLP teachers reported strong ability to select and use technology for pedagogy and for their content area than non-DLP teachers [+W]
• DLP teachers reported higher rates of impactful student technology use and greater perceived positive impact on student engagement and learning than non-DLP teachers [+W]
• DLP teachers reported more confidence than non-DLP teachers in using technology to develop students' six 21st-century skill categories [+W]
• Four relational components—positive feedback, rapport, mutual respect, and reciprocal trust—form the relational framework of coaching [+W]
• Dlp Coaching Improves Teaching Challenges [+M]

Related Products and Programmes

-

Key Sources

• Bakhshaei, M., Hardy, A., Francisco, A., Noakes, S., & Fusco, J. (2018). Fostering Powerful Use of Technology Through Instructional Coaching: Results from the Pilot Year of the Dynamic Learning Project. Digital Promise. https://digitalpromise.dspacedirect.org/items/540c3325-fd5f-408e-a347-2409f57848dd. doi:10.51388/20.500.12265/48
• Bakhshaei, M., Hardy, A., Ravitz, J., & Seylar, J. (2019). Scaling Up Classroom Coaching for Impactful Technology Use: Results from Year 2 of the Dynamic Learning Project. Digital Promise. https://digitalpromise.dspacedirect.org/items/79337f05-0795-4bac-b1d7-f4758c23285c. doi:10.51388/20.500.12265/82

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	product
id	dynamic-learning-project
title	Dynamic Learning Project
description	A school-based instructional technology coaching programme run by Digital Promise that places full-time coaches in underserved schools to support teachers through iterative coaching cycles, modeling, co-teaching, and reflection.
status	review
moved_from	element/dlp-coaching-model-element, theory/five-cornerstones-effective-technology-coaching
product_kind	programme
generated	by process:sweep-kinds on 2026-10-10
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources	2 — bakhshaei-2018, bakhshaei-2019

Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.